There are brand names that we use by synecdoche to refer to a series of objects of the same category and not only those of the same manufacturer. Perhaps the most widespread case in cooking is that of turmix, which has its own entry in the dictionary, but it is also the case of the so-called 'Chinese flan'.
We know flan from an envelope as 'Chinese flan', which contains those powders that, once reconstituted with a liquid and cooked, become a flan. This is usually called fast flan, whatever its brand, but the truth is that someone thought of dressing it with the name and other references to China: José Ferro Rodeiro.
It was in the 50s when Ferro Rodeiro, from As Pontes (Lugo), became aware of the studies on the properties of agar-agar that had been carried out by another Spaniard, Alfredo Valdés García. The chemist explained something new in the country: that agar-agar could replace the egg. Nothing new in Southeast Asia, where agar-agar was used for desserts that could withstand high ambient temperatures without melting. It should be recognized that Angelina Fanny Hesse (1850–1934), who helped her husband Walther Hesse, a worker in the Robert Koch laboratory, and who proposed agar-agar as a solidifying agent for the culturing microorganisms to replace previously used potato slices or animal gelatin, a key discovery that continues to be used today in various diagnostic media.
Going back to Ferro Rodeiro, his idea of marketing an easy and highly profitable dessert was a complete success at a time when ration cards were the order of the day and eggs and sugar were scarce. And besides being cheap, it was very easy to prepare. A motorcycling fan, he sold his own motorcycle to found the instant flan company that would revolutionize the market from a basement in Madrid, as told by his nephew Martial Doctor for ABC. He called it 'Mandarin' and baptized his product with the trade name of 'Chinese flan'.
Ferro dressed his entire brand with references to China. As a logo, he opted for the image of a Mandarin official (which remains to this day). And the product, he called it 'Chinese flan'. Although nothing seems to indicate that there is a relationship between China and flan, taking into account that the technique of mixing eggs with liquids and other aromatic ingredients, and cooking them, is widespread in different cultures, it gives the impression that what Ferro did was make use of stereotypes that we associate both with China and with its inhabitants.
On the one hand, the magic of the instantaneous character of flan refers to 'Chinese magic' or 'a Chinese trick'. On the other, the design of the flan box allows for an interpretation where racism is evident: why was the same color used to illustrate the mandarin official's skin as the flan, and even the same shading? Is it coincidence or is it trying to resemble the appearance of the mandarin, touched by the qīng dài guān mào or Manchu black cap, with the dark caramel top of the flan? If so, the old Mandarin image would have been yet another case of advertising racism.
Ferro, taking advantage of Chinese story-telling, decided to promote his product when the first competing companies began to confront him. By then, he had already bought a hydroelectric power station in Muras (Lugo), electricity that he used to manufacture rubber dolls in nearby facilities. Those dolls, which he designed in a stereotypical way as Chinese children, dressing them in traditional-inspired costumes –although he decided that one of these figures would show his buttocks– and painted by hand by the Murense women, were incorporated as gifts in the boxes of their flans, who had found their biggest consumer in the children's audience.
The reason why Ferro decided to call it 'Chinese Flan' and use references to China is unknown. The factory, which turned to the manufacture of plastics and is now called Grupo Plásticos Ferro, has not answered the questions that Comer La Vanguardia asked them. On their website, they recall the origins of their company, which went from making custards to extruding plastic.
For its part, Dr. Oetker, the multinational that acquired the Mandarin brand and which discarded the name 'Chinese Flan' as the name of its product, has not responded either. On their website, they explain that it was in 2010 when they acquired "this traditional brand of a lifetime" and that "the best flan is made at home with the help of Dr. Oetker and Mandarin Flan Clásico", although they also market the so-called 'Sugar Flan ', with the relevant ready-to-use liquid caramel sachet.
